Oakland Industrial Market Report

Global trade and discretionary budgets fuel demand for space. The East Bay's industrial sector is recording encouraging performance, following a surge in e-commerce spending nationally and record cargo volumes locally over the past year. The Port of Oakland reported a new high mark for freight shipping in 2021, and activity has not slowed in 2022, motivating shipping and logistics firms to fill warehouses here. Additionally, the Bay Area's notable proportion of higher-earning households has supported solid consumer spending, heightening demand for last-mile space. Net absorption from the final two quarters of last year reflects this, with tenants taking a combined 5.6 million square feet of the market, the highest such level in more than a decade. Persistent inflation may materialize in fewer shipments in the future, but conditions have enabled vacancy to fall 30 basis points below the 2019 measure as of March.